When Nagisa felt the bile rise up in his throat for the fourth day in a row, following weeks of nausea, he just knew the fantasy was over for him. Since he'd known what the secondary genders even were, Nagisa had prayed that he'd turn out to be a beta, which was of course the most common. He wasn't dumb enough to ever consider he'd be an alpha, from his frame alone that much was obvious, but he'd hoped he'd turn out lucky enough.

After a few shameful google searches, avoiding the barrage of pornography that showed up, Nagisa concluded that the symptoms for an omega's first heat perfectly lined up with his own condition. At almost fifteen, he was the right age for a presentation. The thought had made Nagisa shift awkwardly, and immediately delete his search history. His mum was about to have an absolute field day.

A week had passed since then, but yet nothing at all heat like. He wasn't concerned exactly, though definitely cautious. He'd had to awkwardly purchase some emergency heat blocker (a deodorant like thing which masked the scene of omega heat) from the pharmacy, just in case anything did happen. Mostly, Nagisa was just tired, sick, and hormonal. He supposed that his body was just preparing itself to change, not that he wanted it to. Nagisa would take the nausea forever, rather than well and truly presenting as an omega.

He didn't feel like an omega, or at least, how he assumed omegas were supposed to be. Though Nagisa didn't like fighting, and would only resort to it in self-defence, he certainly wasn't submissive on an instinctual level. It was true that omegas were less common than betas anyway, but the few Nagisa had met had been concerned with little else than domestic chores and their alphas. He was still young, but Nagisa knew that whoever he was, it wouldn't be that.

His victory against Takoaka proved that. The exhilaration of bloodlust and defeating his enemy was near deafening, and for a moment he forgot all about the nausea and discomfort. The other members of 3E had gradually left following the fight, leaving only Nagisa and Isogai behind. Truthfully Nagisa didn't know why Isogai was actually hanging around, probably something to do with being the class representative…

"Nagisa kun!" His voice snapped out. "You look faint."

Nagisa blinked, vision a little blurry. "I-I'm okay, thank-" Before he could finish, he doubled over, vomiting what little food he'd been able to stomach directly into the flower bed.

"You should go to a doctor." Isogai's voice was gentle, but it had an edge of steel underneath it. Thankfully, as Nagisa's presentation hadn't actually happened yet, he wasn't compelled by an alpha's command.

"I'm okay," Nagisa attempted to reassure him, voice croaky from the way his throat burned after the acid.

Unfortunately for him, it had also been Isogai who caught him throwing up the day before. Kayano had been eating fermented soy beans, and although Nagisa had never considered himself to have strong feelings about them, the mere thought of them had sent him hurling. He'd accidentally bumped into Isogai on his way to the one toilet that was actually in the class building to do said throwing up. Though they weren't particularly close friends, Isogai had shown the same concern then, until Nagisa insisted that he was fine.

Isogai chewed his lip. "Are you sure you don't have some kind of bug?"

Before he could reply, Nagisa felt his lower body muscles weaken, and he practically flopped over. With Isogai's concern, he'd stepped near enough to catch Nagisa before he fell to the ground. For a flying moment he thought that this was the moment his heat was doomed to arrive, which tempted him to use the last of his strength to push the alpha off him. However, he paused, shivering. It was summer, yet Nagisa felt cold all over, much too cold for heat. His breath drew short. What was happening to him?!

"Nagisa kun," Isogai said steadily, "I'm going to take you to a hospital, okay?"

"No hospital," Nagisa tried to protest, his voice small.

Isogai lowered him slowly, finding a more convenient position to lift him onto his back. "School's over already, you can't just go to the infirmary."

He was just so tired, so faint, that he didn't have the arguments left in him. Still, he couldn't help but feel incredibly guilty that his stupid body was making Isogai carry him the whole way down the mountain, and possibly significantly further than that. During the long trek, it was almost as if Nagisa was dropping in and out of existence. He still kind of felt on the edge of hurling, but truthfully he suspected there was nothing left.

If it did turn out to just be his presentation, Nagisa really hoped that Isogai wasn't planning on sticking around after he got dropped off, because he wouldn't be able to take the humiliation. Even if he was confirmed to be an omega, he refused to be a weak and useless one. He didn't know what he'd do, but it definitely wouldn't involve nearly passing out. The thoughts kept him conscious at least, if not entirely lucid, until they'd made it to the main grounds of the school. He was thankful at least that there weren't that many people around.

If they were being stared at once they'd left the property, Nagisa didn't really notice. All he wanted to do was sleep, but the least he could do was keep his body from becoming dead weight. Isogai kept his mind busy, repeatedly asking if he was alright. He really was way too good a person for his own good, Nagisa thought, enviousness of Isogai's natural selflessness.

"Karma kun!"

Nagisa snapped out of his daze, suddenly more than alert of his friend. Karma being Karma, he'd skipped Takoaka's extra training. He wasn't sure why Karma was just hanging around close to their school, though he hoped it was assassination related rather than general mischief. Gently, Isogai slid him off his back, though he still supported most of Nagisa's weight, holding him upright.

Karma scanned him over. "What happened to him?"

Whilst Isogai explained, Nagisa simply hung there, limp. When he got to the part about Nagisa throwing up, Karma's demeanour appeared to shift, like he'd gone from nonchalance to hanging on to every word. If Nagisa had been feeling a little better, he'd have felt more fuzzy that Karma actually seemed to be concerned about him. It was a reminder that they were actually friends, now. His stomach twisted at that thought, forcing him to remember why he'd been avoiding Karma for the last two months.

That train of thought would only serve to make his illness worse, so Nagisa forced it down, attempting to steady himself. The moment he tried to shift so he was holding his own weight, he almost instantly stumbled again.

"I'm taking him to the hospital," Isogai finished. "Want to help carry?"

"I don't need an e-escort," Nagisa got out.

Karma shrugged, taking Nagisa's arm over his shoulder to help support his weight. "Sure."

Feeling like the victim of some disaster, Nagisa gave up and allowed the two alphas to carry him down the street. Thankfully, there was a hospital not so far from there. It had been a while since he'd been admitted to an actual hospital, his mum much preferring to keep him inside. Due to the heat, the waiting room was filled with patients. Everything felt simultaneously sickly and sterile at the same time.

Like some kind of parasitic leech, Nagisa clung onto Karma whilst Isogai talked to the receptionist. Although he didn't want to think too hard about what he looked like, he felt inexplicably comfortable, protected. Maybe it was something to do with his newfound omega nature, being pressed against an alpha in that way. If he didn't feel so woozy, he would've sworn that Karma was intentionally releasing a few pheromones to calm him down. Nagisa's nose shifted as if by instinct, trying to get closer to the scent glands on Karma's neck to inhale it deeper. For all that Karma was, Nagisa had never expected him to feel so steady.

"Nagisa kun," Isogai cleared his throat, causing Nagisa to stumble back. "They're going to take you to a doctor now."

"O-oh," Nagisa turned around properly, still supported by Karma's arms, to see a wheelchair that had been brought out for him. Though he understood its necessity, he couldn't help but cringe. That lonely, kind of overused, wheelchair summed up the entire day.

Still, he was relieved to actually sit down, exhaustion catching up at a terrifying pace. Isogai and Karma were left in the waiting room as some nurse wheeled him towards some kind of consultation room. Everything was so surreal that Nagisa barely paid attention to where he was going, only that soon the nurse was gone, and he was face to face with a fairly young looking doctor.

Her smile was surprisingly bright, as she glanced between him and her computer screen. "Shiota Nagisa? Yes, I have your medical information here. I'm Doctor Kawahara, what can I help you with today?"

He almost sobbed. "I threw up pretty bad around an hour ago and collapsed."

"Had you been feeling sick before this?"

Nagisa thought back. "I threw up yesterday too, and the day before that. But I've been feeling sick for a few weeks."

She took his vitals briefly, before glancing back over at his desk. "I can confidently say that you're showing signs of dehydration, which likely caused the collapse. Have you been making sure to take in fluids in this weather?"

His eyes fell to the floor. "I couldn't keep them down."

That caused Doctor Kawahara to look concerned. "It says here that you're un-presented, correct?"

Ah, there it was. "I thought they were signs of heat." He bit it out.

"A male omega, then? Have you been experiencing any other signs?"

"Mood swings," he thought quickly. "Headaches, exhaustion… It's been going on for around a month."

"For a month?" She raised her eyebrows. "Okay, we'll just give you an ultrasound to check on the development of your internal sex organs, and we'll go from there." Doctor Kawahara stood up then, moving around the room to pull out some kind of monitor. "Do you think you can get up on the bed?"

The medical bed looked like an impossible challenge, but Nagisa was feeling at least a little better out of the heat, and shakily managed to pull himself up. He lay down, pulling his shirt up as instructed as Doctor Kawahara spread surprisingly cold gel over his lower stomach. Frankly, he had no idea how presentation check-ups were supposed to go. She had a kind of calming presence though, and the anxiety of not knowing what was wrong with him was swiftly fading.

Nagisa had good senses, and he could tell there was a tension in the air that suggested something wasn't quite right. She moved the scanner contraption back and forth over his abdomen, frantically clicking on the screen, zooming in and screen capturing a few images. He felt incredibly uneasy, like his illness was worse than just heat.

"I'm going to put my hand on your stomach, okay?"

He nodded shyly as she pressed tentatively on one area, before returning to the ultrasound machine.

"Shiota san," she said gently, "are you sexually active?"

Nagisa supposed it was a routine question, but it still made him cringe. What did 'sexually active' even really mean, anyway?

"No," he finally answered.

She took a deep breath. "Was there maybe a situation you don't quite remember clearly, where you could have been drugged or otherwise unaware?"

Surely that had nothing to do with presentation? The only time he hadn't really been lucid, from memory, was that hang out turned party he'd gone to after their Kyoto trip, which had ended with somebody bringing out alcohol and a not so clear night, waking up half dressed with Karma (who he'd dragged there) in a bathtub.

"No," Nagisa pressed again, ejecting that memory from his brain.

"It's just," she turned the screen clearly so he could see it. "This might sound crazy to you, but look here." Doctor Kawahara pointed to a shape on the screen. "This here could be a head, and this the back, and," she zoomed in further, "this looks like a tiny arm."

"I-I'm sorry?" He felt bile rise up again.

Doctor Kawahara reached underneath the small monitor, producing a tube that looked ready made to hold pee. "I'm going to pull the curtain around you, and I want you to urinate into this okay?" She handed him a bottle of water like a peace offering.

Nagisa knew he was supposed to trust doctors. Once she'd left him alone, he forced himself to drink as much of the water as he could, and managed to at least pee a little bit. He wasn't sure if it was enough, but then again he hadn't experienced one of these appointments before. Once he'd signalled he was done, the doctor politely took the sample over to her desk, and swiftly dipped something into it.

"It will be just a few minutes," she said reassuringly. "There," she looked over at the stick. "Positive. I'd like to do some further tests just so we're completely sure, but Shiota san, you're pregnant."

A chill rushed over his bones. "Huh?" It came out like a whisper.

"Somewhere between eight and nine weeks, judging by the size of the foetus," she looked over at the screen again.

"F-foetus."

She looked highly sympathetic. "I appreciate this must be some highly shocking news, Shiota san. Would you like me to give you a moment alone?"

Nagisa just about had it in him to nod.

"He really did that?" Karma pondered as Isogai recounted the fight he'd missed. "Didn't think Nagisa had it in him."

"Karasuma just looked over and picked him," Isogai said, apparently still processing the events from earlier. "And Nagisa took him out like it was nothing."

"Before getting sick?"

"Before getting sick," Isogai confirmed.

Karma pursed his lips. Though Nagisa was what he considered to be a master at masking himself, it was odd that he'd suddenly get sick like that. He almost felt… worried about him. That made Karma wrinkle his nose, leaning back more casually in seat.

"Where is my son?!" A highly agitated woman burst through the waiting room, stalking over to reception like she wanted blood.

It took Karma a moment to place the woman as Nagisa's mother, whom he'd only met two or three times before. Even back then, he'd always been wary of her, like her presence left some kind of invisible stench. It made sense that she was there, though. Considering they were all underage, it was expected she'd be called in.

The receptionist fumbled in terror with their clipboard, stammering out something Karma couldn't quite catch.

"That's not GOOD ENOUGH," she truly rose her voice. "I get called at work to collect my supposedly pregnant omega son, and you can't even-"

He felt his throat close up. Nagisa… pregnant? That couldn't be right…

"Woah," Isogai let out beside him. "I never would have-"

Karma stood up quickly, as if the ground had turned to quicksand, dizzy and suddenly dry throated.

"Karma kun, what's-"

Before he could finish, he let his legs carry him out of the building on autopilot without looking back.